An Excellent and Easy Way to Cook Meat (and Fish!)

This post is just a quickie that occurred to me when I was cooking dinner last night.  For my real man I did turkey steaks in a creamy leek sauce with mashed potato and veggies.  I had scallops, also in a creamy leek sauce, wrapped in buckwheat pancakes – I've eaten this before and I don’t blame me, it’s yum!

Firstly I made enough leek sauce for both of us.

Creamy Leek Sauce for 2

1 leek – cleaned and thinly sliced

30g butter

300ml double cream

salt and pepper

~   Melt the butter in a small pan and stir in the leeks to coat thoroughly.

~   Turn down the heat and press something suitable (ie. a butter wrapper, greaseproof paper of piece of foil) directly onto the surface of the leeks to cover completely.  Put a lid on the pan.

~   Cook gently for 10-15 minutes keeping an eye on things and giving the occasional stir till very tender.
~   Remove the covers and stir in the cream.

~   Taste and season.

~   Bring to a boil then simmer gently for a minute.

Having made this I browned the scallops and the turkey in two separate pans, added a splash of stock to the turkey and a splash of white wine to the scallops together with half each of the creamy leek sauce.  I brought both pans almost but not quite to the boil, covered them and turned off the heat. 

Here’s mine ...

The Best Way to Cook Small Pieces of Meat & Fish

It was at this point I realised that some people might not be familiar with this easy, minimal attention and even a bit economical way of cooking small pieces of meat and fish without drying out or toughening them.  The secret is ... the flesh cooks in the residual heat of the liquid rather than direct heat so remains tender and juicy.  Another wily plan!  You can even cook things like this an hour or two in advance, just remember to reheat Very Gently or the tender advantage will be lost.

It is important that the meat or fish to be cooked is at room temperature and in thin slices. As for the liquid, match it to the dish.  Hot stock, hot wine and stock, cream, cider or an appropriate sauce or gravy.

Method:

~   Firstly prepare your sauce which should be copious enough to at least surround, if not cover, the propose meat or fish.
~   When ready to cook the meat first bring the sauce to a good temperature, not necessarily boiling but nice and hot
~   Season the meat or fish and sauté in a little oil till taking colour on both sides then pour over the hot sauce.
~   Bring to a simmer, put on a lid and turn off the heat.

~   When ready to eat just return to a simmer BUT NO MORE – boiling already cooked meat toughens it.

This way of cooking is ideal for ...

~   Shellfish – the scallops above, for instance.
~   Fillets of fish.

~   Chicken escalopes or, to put it another way, thin slices of chicken, either cut that way or beaten thin and flat. 
~   Veal escalopes too.
~   Those thin minute steaks that can dry out so quickly.
~   Liver and Onions – this is great made this way.  I make a rich onion gravy first, brown the liver in a little oil on both sides then pour over the hot gravy, turn off the heat and cover the pan.  If the liver is thinly sliced, as it should be, it will be cooked, tender and wonderful in about 5 minutes.

Reheating Meat

And that’s not all – this is the best way to reheat cooked meats, especially roast meats for a second roast dinner.  I slice the meat and bring the gravy to a boil.  Take the gravy off the heat, lay the sliced meat in it, put on a lid and leave it to relax and warm up whilst I do the veggies.  The result is tender, juicy and delicious – maybe better than the first time!

In Other News ...

Small story, at the risk of being boring, someone reviewed my cooking tips ebook a while ago now and gave it 3 stars – they wrote:

“The tips in this book are good for the novice and/or aspiring cook, however I have to take stars away for the constant use of "till" instead of the correct word "until" throughout the book.”

This seems a bit uber-picky to me especially as he liked the tips but he’s not the only one who can be pedantic! I did a bit of research and found that till actually came first, appearing in the language about four hundred years before until and that they are both now considered correct. What a sad waste of two stars!

Bargain Hunt ~ please ignore this post if you live in the St. Austell area!

You may remember a couple of weeks ago I had a bit of a rant about a girl who claimed to be too poor to eat well. I’ve been pondering on this as I eat really well on a low budget and I believe that this is not only because I know how to cook but also because I know how to shop ie. I pick up a lot of bargains. For instance this is what I've eaten over the past few days.

Lemony, Peppery Sea Bass Fillets with Asparagus and Sautéed New Potatoes ~ 90p

This was quickly and economically cooked in one pan. I had a few cooked new potatoes leftover from an earlier meal so sautéed them in a little oil till crisp then pushed them to one side of the pan and pulled that side off the heat.  I wiped out the rest of the pan, added a knob of butter, the seasoned fish fillets and 3 stalks of asparagus, sliced.  Both the fish and the asparagus took just a few minutes to cook. I served up the potatoes before sprinkling the fish and asparagus with freshly squeezed lemon and a good old grind of black pepper. 

The sea bass was 66p, reduced from 4.40, the asparagus 49p for 9 stalks so about 16p, the new potatoes were 10p for a kilo so perhaps 1p!

Scallops in a Creamy Leek Sauce, in Crispy Buckwheat Pancakes ~ 90p

½ small leek – cleaned and thinly sliced

7g butter

1 tbsp white wine or vegetable stock
60ml double cream

80g raw scallops

~   Melt the butter in a small pan and stir in the leeks to coat thoroughly.

~   Turn down the heat and press something suitable (ie. a butter wrapper, greaseproof paper of piece of foil) directly onto the surface of the leeks.  Cover the pan.

~   Cook gently for 10-15 minutes keeping an eye on things and giving the occasional stir till very tender.
~   Add the wine or stock and allow to simmer for a minute or two.
~   Stir in the cream, bring to a boil then turn down the heat add the scallops and simmer gently for just a minute.

Serve with crispy buckwheat pancakes the recipe for which is here.

The pancake recipe makes 6-8 crepes so I ate 2 and froze the rest, in pairs, for my future delectation (the best way to reheat them is individually in a dry frying pan so that they crisp up again).  Buckwheat flour, which is gluten free, is about £2 a kilo, so my recipe for 6-8 crepes costs about 70p which is about 20p for the crepes, the scallops were reduced from £4.00 to 60p so 30p for them, ½ leek is about 20p, so with the wine and cream – say 90p.

Peppered Steak Salad ~ £1.70

We always pick up the little ends of steak reduced in the supermarket, I use half for either this salad or for Bulgogi and the other half in a fry up for my real man.  On average a small fillet steak trimming costs about £2.50 so that’s £1.25 for my share. handful of lettuce from our favourite mixed bag – 20p, pepper, brandy, cream say 35p. The recipe for the salad is here and as I say it is one of my most popular dishes ever.

Roasted Salmon with Sweet Potato Fries ~ £1.36

Some while ago Jamie Oliver was berated for the expensive ingredients in his book “Save with Jamie” and in particular people seemed aghast at his use of salmon but I can see his point because occasionally Tesco have a half price offer on whole salmon (I used to scale and fillet them myself but recently discovered they’ll do it for you which is even better).  A whole 4kg or so salmon costs about £26 normally, but we never buy one for more than half price, ie. £13.00 and I have seen them occasionally for £6.50!!!

Working it out on the half price version I cut it into about 16 portions so 81p each.  I always keep a sweet potato in stock, 1 sweet potato costs about 60p and is too much for me but the lucky thing is the remaining cut portion keeps well in the fridge with the cut edge covered for about 10 days to 2 weeks so I get three goes at it. Salmon 81p, sweet potato fries 20p, handful of salad 35p = £1.36.

Even better – sometimes I leave a little of the salmon and have it for lunch the next day ... 

Courgette Fritters with Salmon Mayonnaise ~ very little!

Quite often I can’t quite finish my salmon (aren’t I pathetic) so, in this case, I mixed the leftovers with mayonnaise and ate it with courgette fritters using this universal fritter recipe mainly because  we bought 3 gorgeous courgettes for 8p! 

Ham & Pease Pudding Soup with Crunchy Croutons ~ say 30p

This is thick, warming, savoury and delicious and literally costs pennies. See here for the recipe and add some shredded ham if you can. 

This time I served it with croutons about which I hold strong opinions; they should be torn rather than cut as this way you get lots of little ridges and points to go crunchy. Toss with a drizzle of olive oil plus salt and pepper, spread on a baking tray and pop in the oven for a few minutes till golden and crunchy. It’s best to make these when you have the oven on for something else so I can’t give exact timings as I don’t know what temperature you’ll be using but it’s not long. If you keep a collection of bread scraps in the freezer (old crusts and trimmings) they cost virtually nothing whereas a 100g bag of croutons from the supermarket is about £1.00!  Rip off!

I eat this well and this cheaply all the time and if I can do it so can anybody because not only is the food I use cheap but in most cases it’s a doddle to cook and takes very little time or energy – either mine or the electricity type. I realise that as I love cooking and have been at it for years this sort of thing is easy for me but it really honestly ponestly isn’t difficult – and there’s loads and loads of info out there to help, even some stuff by me!  I also know that it is probably easier for me just cooking for myself (and my real man, this is how he eats) but I am confident that I could feed a family reasonably cheaply and healthily too.

We don’t live anywhere particularly bargainaceous (inland Cornwall, we usually shop in St. Austell Tesco) and we don't spend a lot of time searching out deals. We only shop once a week but we do always pick up any bargains we see and luckily I know what to do with them. Often the first step is put it in the freezer which means I always have lots of inspirational bits and pieces to turn to. If you live in the St. Austell area I would, of course, appreciate it if you’d please ignore the above post and leave all the bargains for us!

If you have the time and the inclination it is possible to do the job even better; we have friends who make a point of visiting Morrisons at about 3.30 on Sunday afternoons and they really clean up.  They bought 4½lb vine ripened tomatoes for 45p a couple of weeks ago – respect!

Do Yourself a Favour ~ Learn to Cook!

I've been eating very well recently or, more accurately, I've been eating very well for years and years and years and it’s all thanks to my Mummy!

When I was little I had no interest in food or cooking so never bothered to learn anything from her. Then I got engaged and had real asleep-at-night nightmares of my new husband starving to death as I couldn't feed him. Mummy bought me an "Supercook ~ an Encyclopedia of World Cooking" which was published in 112 parts. I read it on the way to work and very rapidly became hooked. 

Once married Ray (that’s his name – we’re divorced but I’m still glad I didn't starve him to death!) and I made a rule that once a week we had a meal entirely made of things or dishes we had never tried before. This was in the 70s and all sorts of interesting ingredients were being “discovered”– aubergines, avocados, chilli peppers and so on – and I loved experimenting. This quickly led to us selling our house and buying a rundown hotel in Cornwall in partnership with my sister.  We opened a restaurant, and then another one and that’s how my cooking career started. Well done Mummy!

So I can cook and it has not only given me a wonderful career all over the world, because it is something you can do anywhere, but it also means that I can cook whatever I fancy, often at the drop of a proverbial hat, out of leftovers.

As an example here are details of my last few meals. I’m not showing off, the point I am trying to make (probably not to readers of this blog though!) is that cooking is easy and can really make life better!

Roasted Garlic & Parmesan Soup

Serves 1

I had an ulterior motive for making this; I have just finished writing the third book in my "Genius Recipes” series, which is Soup: (almost) the Only Recipe You'll Ever Need and it needed a final photo before uploading it to kindle. 

1 small onion – thinly sliced
½ tbsp olive oil

1 medium floury potato – peeled and thinly sliced
about 250ml chicken or vegetable stock

2 – 3 cloves of roasted garlic
1 tbsp grated Parmesan + a bit for garnishing
30ml double cream

~   Heat the oil, stir in the onions, cover directly with a piece of foil or greaseproof or a butter paper, put the lid on the pan, turn the heat right down and cook gently till utterly tender.
~   Add the potato and just cover with stock, put on the lid and simmer till very tender.
~   Squeeze the soft roasted garlic from its skins into the soup and purée until smooth.
~   Return to the heat and stir in the cream and Parmesan.
~   Bring to a simmer, taste and adjust seasoning again.
~   Serve hot with croutons and more Parmesan.

Peppered Steak Salad

We often buy a fillet steak off-cut or two from the bargain bit of Tesco. The piece I used for this and the stir fry below (I divided it in two) cost £2.21 so not very extravagant.  This salad has been a menu favourite of mine for many years and was one of those dishes that, once tasted, regulars would order again even it wasn't on the menu that day! For Peppered Steak Salad recipe see here. 

Beef & Cashew Stir Fry

I marinated the second half of the steak in a mixture of Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce (a store cupboard staple) and Soy Sauce (another one!) and stir fried it together with vegies and cashews.

Mushrooms in Black Garlic Alfredo

Such a gorgeous mix of flavours. I've written about this before, see here.

This time I used 1½ mushrooms (as I only had 3 and this way I can eat this again!) and a splash of Whipped Cream which cost 16p for 300ml because it was at the end of its tether! It is now 6 days out of date and perfectly fine. I suppose this whole meal together with the toasted ciabatta can’t have cost me more than 50p.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

I do like to keep either a sweet potato or a butternut squash around the place; they are delicious, versatile and keep very well.  Salmon for dinner last night so I decided to have the leftovers for lunch today and to try, for the first time making sweet potato fries in the oven. Easy peasy as it turns out – also quite fast so I recommend this.

~   Heat the oven to 425ºF/220ºC/200ºC fan/gas 7.

~   Put a baking tray in the oven.
~   Peel a sweet potato per person and cut into chips.
~   Toss them with a drizzle of olive oil and some seasoning; salt and pepper plus cayenne if you fancy it.

~   When the oven is hot spread the sweet potato chips on the hot tray with space around each chip. If you need more space heat another tray.
~   Bake for about 20-25 minutes depending on how thick they are. They are ready when golden and crisp and tender.

I wish people would realise that it’s not difficult to eat food you love every day of your life without spending much time or money. What a boon!  

I have cooked professionally for so long and really wish I could pass on what I know which is why the I blog and write cookbooks.  

Incidentally I do feed my real man too but his eating requirements are somewhat different to mine, he eats like this …

... but I can do that too.

Please Tweet links below and encourage people to cook!

~   Make yourself happy ~ learn to cook!
~   Learn to cook and eat EXACTLY what you want every day!
~   Key recipes ~ the idea is that you will go on to start creating you own dishes
~   Want to eat healthy, cheap, delicious food?  Learn to cook!

Fire Meat aka Bulgogi

We woke to a thick frost this morning and went outside to play in the crunchy grass, leaving footprints. The sky was blue and stripy and our car looked prettier than it ever has before, especially the windows.

We are supposed to have rain coming in tonight, all of us, so perhaps that will be the end of this very acceptable stretch of excellent weather we have been having.

In this cooler climate a hot lunch was appealing so I made me a faux bulgogi with a small piece of steak leftover from preparing my man's dinner last night; a trimming, you understand.

Bulgogi (bul means fire and gogi means meat) is an Absolutely Delicious spicy, sweet, hot Korean dish comprising strips of steak marinated in a soy, garlic, spring onion, sesame goo and then seared in a hot pan.

About 10 years ago a huge friend of mine, Clarky (he’s 6’6”), and I ran the food and bar side of the Royal B.V.I. Yacht Club. I used to do a very varied menu so that hopefully the members didn’t get bored and were therefore tempted to dine frequently. 

One day I had some steak trimmings and decided to go for the old bulgogi ploy. This was a private members club where we knew almost every customer so it was quite a surprise when a real bone fide Korean chap came in to lunch, a guest of one of our regulars. He ordered my Bulgogi and I was nervous, fearing that I may have taken quite a liberty with his country’s cuisine but, if the gentleman is to be believed, it was spot on. He did come back in the evening for a second serving so presumably, even if it was spot off, he enjoyed it.

Bulgogi ...

          ... as I made it then

500g steak – sirloin or something else good

3 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp soft dark brown sugar

1 tbsp sesame oil

½ tbsp toasted sesame seeds

3 spring onions – thinly sliced, diagonally is prettiest

2 crushed cloves of garlic

generous grind of black pepper

a little finely chopped hot red chili - optional but I like it
1 more spring onion sliced diagonally

½ tbsp more sesame seeds

~  Thinly slice the steak across the grain.

~  Mix together all the other ingredients, apart from the two at the end, and marinate the beef in the mixture for several hours or overnight (or day).

~  Grill or pan sear the steak over high heat till brown and cooked to your liking – it doesn’t take long.
~  Serve sprinkled with the reserved sliced spring onion and sesame seeds.

Bulgogi is often eaten wrapped in lettuce leaves together with rice and kimchi (pickled cabbage) but I prefer it with stir fried rice.

Easy Cheaty Bulgogi

My “bulgogi” today was inauthentic; I made it by mixing together soy, sweet chilli sauce, sesame oil and some ginger syrup left over from making Buttered Rum & Ginger Ice Cream from my book, Luscious Ice Creams without a Machine.

I didn’t add sugar to this bulgoggi because of the other sweet ingredients.

I always keep a few bags of cooked rice in the freezer for emergency stir fries and I used up some bits and pieces of vegetable matter laying around – sadly no red or yellow pepper to bring a bright and happy colour to the dish but for which I apologise.

Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers

I'm so inspired by leftovers that, since writing this blog post, I have written an entire book on the subject ...

Great Preview Here!